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EUROPEAN CREDIT SYSTEM FOR VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING (ECVET) |
A system for the transfer, capitalisation and recognition of learning outcomes in Europe
Over recent years we have witnessed a constant commitment of the member states of the European Union to “making Europe the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world”, as approved on the occasion of the Council of Lisbon in 2000. Achieving this objective poses the evident need to exploit the systems of education and vocational training. Consequently, the European education and training systems have been requested to offer the support necessary to create tools and services aimed at implementing the Lisbon strategy. In particular, the member states, the countries of the European Economic Area, the social partners and the Commission have started cooperation on a practical level within the framework of actions aimed at achieving the objectives approved by the Bruges-Copenhagen process:
- encouraging mobility and lifelong learning by making qualifications and competences transparent;
- improving the quality of the education and vocational training systems;
- facilitating the personalised access of all citizens to higher education and training processes through the recognition and validation of non-formal and informal learning:
- establishing a common approach for the transfer of learning outcomes from one system to another;
- establishing a common code of reference for education and training systems based on learning outcomes.
Among these, great importance is assumed by the setting up of the European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET). The creation of a transnational system of learning classification is in fact of significant importance in a system where international mobility is in continuous growth.
In particular, the system sets itself the aim of facilitating:
- The transfer of learning outcomes within and between the various education and training systems and between formal, non-formal and informal learning;
- Links between training/education activities and learning experiences that can be accumulated for the purposes of acquiring partial qualifications;
- Transnational cooperation between authorities, training and education bodies and teachers;
- Transparency and mutual recognition of competences;
- Lifelong learning.
What is the ECVET system and how does it work?
The ECVET is at the same time:
A device for facilitating the transfer and capitalisation of a person’s learning outcomes (knowledge, skills and competences) when passing from one learning context to another and/or from one qualification system to another. The ECVET has been designed for the entire education and vocational training system and makes it possible to assign credits to training processes, regardless of whether they have been earned in formal or non-formal situations. It may be applied at a regional or national level (in the case of inter-regional mobility or mobility between formal and non-formal systems) and in the case of bilateral or multilateral mobility.
The ECVET is also a method for describing a qualification in terms of units of learning outcomes to which credit points are assigned. In practice, in every regional or national context the qualifications or the education/training programmes may be divided into units or parts of units. A unit is defined within the ECVET as the smallest part of a qualification or training programme, and is oriented to the outcome. A unit is subject to assessment and may, where appropriate, be certified. Each unit also corresponds to a specific combination of knowledge, skills and competences and may vary in size, in accordance with national education and training systems.
There are evident similarities between the ECVET system and the ECTS system, in use in the academic sector. However, while the ECTS is based on the quantitative capitalisation of small parts of education programmes, the ECVET system is more focused on the quantitative aspects of the programme, in other words focusing on the learning outcomes rather than on the amount of individual work required.
Who stands to benefit from the ECVET system?
The ECVET is a solution for those who participate in programmes of transnational mobility, in various learning contexts, whether formal, non-formal or informal. Moreover, the description of the qualifications in terms of units relative to the learning outcomes makes it possible to establish the knowledges, skills and competences characterising each qualification and to make them more comprehensible to the participants, the qualification issuers and employers.
One of the basic principles of the ECVET system is the mutual recognition and trust of the countries adopting it. The various education and training systems are not obliged to adopt it, and it should be developed and implemented gradually on a voluntary basis. The application of the ECVET in the countries that adopt it will in fact take into consideration the existing sectoral national or regional legislation and/or regulations governing qualifications.
The process of constructing the ECVET system, characterised in the initial phase by technical consultation on the part of member states and by the drawing up of the Commission Staff Working Document, concluded only recently and opened the way for a new phase in setting up the system, as specified in the proposal for a Recommendation of 9 April 2008.
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